Automatic stop mechanism for addressing machines



April 22 1924. 1,491,516

C. CHISHOLM AUTOMATIC STOP MECHANISM FOR ADDRESSING MACHINES Filed Nov. 20 1920 2 SheetsSheet 1 IN VE/V 7-06 5719 ENE y's.

April 22 1924.

C. CHISHOLM AUTOMATIC STOP MECHANISM FOR ADDRESSING MACHINES 2 sheets-sneak 2 Filed Nov. 20,

in MFA/T 0?? U Patented Apr. 22, 1924.

UNITE STTES CLIFTON GHISHOLM, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO ASSIGNO'R TO THE AMERICAN MULTI- GRAPH COMPANY, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

AUTOMATIC STOP MECHANISM FOR -ADDRES SING MACHINES.

Application filed November 20, 1920. Serial No. 425,476.

T all whom it may concern Be it known that I, CLIFTON CHIsHOLM, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Automatic Stop Mechanism for Addressing Machines, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to mechanism adapted to form a part of an addressing machine and operate to stop the operation upon the arising of some contingency, for instance, the failure of the paper to properly feed or the magazine of address plates becoming.

empty.

One of the objects of the invention is to make such mechanism simple and at the same time eflicient, and readily operable for the thinnest paper used as well as for the heavier grades. In effecting this I arrange the paper, feeling parts so that they may throw into action power mechanism to shift a controlling clutch.

Another object is to enable practically the same mechanism to throw out the controlling clutch either when the paper fails to feed or the magazine becomes empty.

The invention is illustrated in an approved form in the drawings hereof, and is hereinafter more fully explained and its essential novel features summarized in the claims.

In the drawings Fig. 1 is a sectional side elevation of the machine; Fig. 2 is a front elevation showing a portion in section; Figs. 3 and 1 are details illustrating the position of one of the paper engaging rolls which control the clutch, first where the paper is ab sent, and second where the paper is present.

Referring by numerals to the oarts shown in the drawings, indicates the bed of the machine, and 11 one of a pair of suitable frame standards rising therefrom.

In these standards are mounted a shaft 12 for the paper feeding drum 13 and shaft 14. on which the platen 15 is journalled. indicates a vertical magazine for address plates, a number of which are shown at 21. These plates descend by gravity, and the lowermost one is engaged and fed to the right (Fig. 1) by conveyer chains 24 running over sprockets 25 on a shaft 26 and over other sprockets 27 on the shaft 14: which is suitably geared with the shaft 12. These chains have The mechanism above described is shown incidentally to illustrate the operation of the automatic stop mechanism which forms the subject matter of this application. The particular paper feed drum shown is described more fully and claimed in my co-pending ap- I plication No. 1120, 115, filed Oct. 29, 1920. As here shown it comprises, beside the body 13, a pair of segmental yielding platen members 10, mounted on the body, and a pair of rings 11 at the end of the body and having their outer periphery flush with-the periphery of the segmental members. Co-operating with these rings are rollers and 51 which have their axes parallel with the shaft 12 and projectthru openings in a'stationary guard plate 52.

The paper is fed by mechanism-not shownbut which may be in accordance with my patent No. 1,285,623, issued November 26, 1918, from a position above the paper feeding drum downwardly toward the left in Fig. 1, between the drum and the'shield 52. The paper when passing between the shield and drum is held against the drum by the rollers 50 and 51, acting successively on the paper until it comes above the impression platen. At this time one of the segmental members 10 is above the platen 15 and one of the plates is in a similar position, so that the plate and paper are fed together toward the right in Fig. 1 between the yielding pressure platen 15 and one of the yielding segmental platens 40.

To cause the operation of the paper feed and conveyor to stop, in case of failure of either the paper or plates, I drive the shaft 12 by means of a clutch which is thrown out by the mechanism about to be described. Fig. 2, shows at a driving pulley loose'on the shaft 12, and at 61 a shiftable clutch splined to the shaft and adapted to couple the pulley with it, or leave it disconnected therefrom.

62 indicates a suitable shipper lever for shift ing this splined clutch collar. This shipper lever is preferably equipped witha handle 6 1 for manual operation. whenever desired;

for the automatic operation it carries a blade extending into a peripheral notch 71 in a rotary but longitudinally shiftable shaft 70, as shown in Fig. 2. This figure shows the position of the parts when the shaft has been shifted toward the right to disengage the clutch. Movement to this position is of fected by actuation of the paper feeler mechanism to be described.

Pivotally mounted on a stationary frame rod 75 are a pair of arms 76 and 76 which are bent. as shown at 76 in Fig. 1 and carry at their ends rollers 77 adapted to ride on the rings 41. In these rings are formed seg mental grooves 45 which in the rotation of the drum come opposite the rollers 77. Now, if paper is present bridging the grooves 45, the rollers will be thereby held out of the grooves in substantially the same position they occupy when other portions of the drum are opposite them. Fig. 4 indicates at A a sheet of paper, or an envelope, on the drum bridging the grooves 45 and shows how this maintains the roller 77 in its normal position.

If there is a failure of the paper to properly feed, then when the uncovered groove 45 comes opposite the roller 77, the roller will at once drop by gravity into the groove 45, as shown in Fig. 3. Each arm 76, 76 carries a pin 79. These pins are normally idle, but when the roller drops into the groove the pin stands in the path of the crown cam 80 or 80 on the rotary shaft 7 O. Thereupon the continued rotation of this shaft causes th cam to engage thepin and draw the shaft to the left as one faces the machine, which is into the position shown in Fig. This movement swings the shipper lever to disengage the clutch, which thereafter remains disengaged until restored by manual movement of the shipper lever.

The shaft 70 being rotated by power, it will be seen that the feeler arms do not of themselves perform the work of disengaging the clutch. They simply move into the paths of the power driven cams, which effect the operation. This allows the fcelcr arms to be made light enough to be supported in their inactive position by the thinnest paper used bridging the recess; at the same time the power mechanism has ample force to disengage the clutch.

It is desirable that the mechanism be arranged to feed two envelopes for each rota tion of the drum 13, or one envelope, or a sheet of paper, when the same are of larger size. To accomplish this I provide the two platens 40, and I arrange them so that one or both of them may be presented to the successive address plates; that is to say, I provide change speed gearing adapted to be shifted to cause the drum 13 to make either one rotation or a half rotation for each address plate fed. Such a system is shown, de scribed and claimed in my prior application No. 371,722, filed April 6, 1920. In the present invention 1 provide two paper feeling arms 76 and 76 and I arrange one of these to have a possible operation only once for each rotation of the drum 13, while the other may possibly operate twice for each rotation. This arrangement and the mechanism for rendering only one arm or the other active, in accordance with the condition of the change speed gearing, will now be described.

As shown in Fig. 2, the shaft 12 which carries the printing drum also serves to drive the conveyer chains thru variable gearing. In Fig. 2, and 91 indicate mesh ing gears of the same size on the shafts 12 and 14. 92 and 93 indicate meshing gears on these shafts, the latter gear having twice the diameter of the former. The gears 91 and 93 are tight on the shaft 14, which operates the conveyor chains, the impression platen 15 being loose on this shaft. The driving gears 90 and 92 are both loose on the shaft 12, and either of them may be clutched to this shaft by a sliding key 95 which occupies a keyway in the shaft 12 and has a radially projecting end adapted to engage a notch 96 in the hub of the gear 90, or a notch 97, in the hub 92, as shown in Fig. 3 when the key projection occupies an intermediate position both gears are out of action.

To shift the key 95, I form a projection at its outer end, which occupies a eripheral groove in abushing 100 carried by a shiftable bracket 101. mounted on a sliding rod 102. On this rod are a pair of collars 103 and 104 having inclined edges, as shown in Fig. 2. These collars are adapted to clear or engage their respective arms 76, 76*, and are so positioned that when one collar is engaging its arm the other collar is free therefrom, as shown in Fig.

If the bracket 101 be moved to the left from its idle position shown in Fig. 2, the gear 92 will be locked to the shaft and the collar 103 will be brought beneath the arm 76, the collar 104 clearing the arm 76. The arm 7 6 and its roller 77 are thus held inactive, but the arm 7 6 and its roller are active. The drum ring which co-operates with the roller of this arm has one arcuate groove 45, so that but one test will be made for the presence or absence of paper for each rotation of the drum 13. When the gear 92 is active, as now supposed, the conveyer chain shaft 14 will make a half rotation for each rotation of the drum. Each half rotation of the shaft 14 brings a fresh plate to the printing position, since the conveyer chain'lugs 29 are spaced a distance corresponding to half the periphery of the This bracket is sprockets on the shaft 14 which carry the chains. Accordingly each rotation of the shaft 12 feeds either one large envelope or a sheet of paper, and one test is made for its presence or absence.

If the bracket 101 be drawn toward the right from the position shown in Fig. 2, the gear 90 will be coupled to the shaft 12 and at the same time the collar 1 will raise'the arm 7 6 into inactive position and the arm 78 will become active being freed by the removal of the collar 103. With this gear connection there will be one rotation of the shaft 14 for each rotation of the shaft 12. As the plate-feeding lugs 29 on the conveyer chains are spaced a distance corresponding to half the periphery of the sprockets on the shaft 14, it followsthat each rotation of this shaft will bring two plates to printing position, and this would require two pieces'of paper, or envelope, to be printed. This is the coupling which I employ for ordinary envelopes, one being printed when one of the segmental platens 40 is active and the other when the other platen 40 is active. The arm 76 which is active under these circumstances has its roller 77 riding on a ring 11 which carries two arcuate grooves 15, as shown in Fig. 1, so that in this case the two tests are made for each rotation of the drum. I

t will be seen from the above description that my stop .mechanism is automatically positioned in correspondence with the change in the gearing when the machine is changed from ordinary envelopes to large size envelopes or paper, or vice versa, the simple shoving in or pulling out 'of the bracket 101 accomplishing both the adjustment of the gearing and of the throw-out mechanism in a very simple manner.

The power may be transmitted to the rotating shaft from any suitable part of the machine. I find it very convenienttoprovide a pinion 105 on the shaft meshing with a broad idler 106, which meshes with the gear 90. When the shaft 12 is active the gear 90 is always rotating, being either keyed to it or driven by the train of gears 91 and 93 from the gear 92. The breadth of the idler 106 allows the pinion 105 to shift longitudinally, while maintaining its mesh with the idler.

To enable the same clutch-shifting mechanism to stop the operation when the supply magazine becomes empty, I provide an arm 110 pivoted to the side of the magazine at 111 and adapted to lie against the forward edge of the plates, and to the upper end of this arm I pivot a link 112 which connects at its rear end with a rock arm 113 connected with a rock arm 114 loosely mounted on the rod 75, and having a pin 115 adapted to be moved into or out of the path of a crown cam 118 on the shaft 70.

Ordinarily the mechanism just described is idle, but Whenever the magazine becomes empty, the arm 110 becomes thereby freed from restraint, and a spring 118 swings theupper end of this arm forwardly. This lowers the arm 11a to cause the pin 115 to stand in the path 'ofthe cam 116. Accordingly the rod 70 as it rotates is cammed in the direction to move the shipper lever to disengage the clutch in the manner already described.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:- I 1 v I 1. In an addressing machine, the combination, with 'a rotary paper support havmg a recess, a member adaptedto move into the recess when the paper is absent, a stop movable by such member, a power driven rotary cam adapted to engage such stop and be axially shifted thereby as seem rotates, and mechanism actuated by such shifting of the cam to effect astoppage in the operation of the 1nachine.-

2. In a machine of the character described, the combination, with means for guiding and feeding paper, of a feeler bearing on the paper and adapted to be opposite a recess on the other side of the paper, a clutch, a shiftable cam adapted to disengage the clutch, and an abutment for the'cam car ried by said feeler.

3. In a machine of the character described, the combination, with means for guiding the paper, of a feeler adapted to bear on the paper opposites recess, a-clutch, a 1

shiftable rod adapted to operate the clutch, ashiftable cam for moving said rod, and an abutment for the cam carried by said feeler.

4. The combination, with means for guid-' ing and feeding paper, of a feeler adapted to bear on the paper opposite a recess on the other side of the paper, a clutch, a longitudinally shiftable rod for operating the same, a crown cam on the rod, and an abutment for feeler.

5. The combination, with means for guiding and feeding paper, of a feeler adapted to bear on the paper opposite recess, a' clutch, a longitudinally movable rod for shifting the clutch, gearing for rotating the rod, a crown cam on the rod, and an abutment for the cam adapted to be positioned by the feeler.

6. The combination with a paper guide having a recess, a pivoted arm adapted to coact with paper on the opposite side thereof from the recess, a pin on said arm, a crown cam adapted to be engaged by said pin and moved thereby, or cleared, according to whether the recess is covered or uncovered, a clutch for controlling the operation. and a connection between the clutch and the crown cam.

the cam positioned by the 7. In a machine of the character described, the combination, of a rotary drum, means for feeding, as desired, either one or two articles for each rotation of the drum, a throwout device having two feelers, one operative once a rotation, and the other operative twice a rotation, and means for rendering one or the other feelers active according to whether the mechanism is feeding one or two articles for each rotation, a power driven clutch shifter, and an abutment therefor positioned by said feelers.

8. In a machine of the character described, the combination, of a platen, a rotary paper feeding drum coacting therewith, and having two impression surfaces, conveyor means for feeding plates between the drum and platen, changeable gearing between the drum and the conveyer means to enable either one or two plates to coact with the drum, a clutch for stopping the operation, two feelers coacting with the drum, one arranged to operate once a rotation and the other twice a rotation, and a device for simultaneously shifting the gearing and rendering the corresponding feeler active and the other inactive, shiftable cams moved by engagement with said feelers, and a connection between said cams and the clutch.

9. In an addressingmachine, the combination, of a supply magazine, a conveyer, an arm bearing against a plate in the magazine, a clutch for operating the conveyer, a longitudinally movable rotary shaft for releasing the clutch, a crown cam on said shaft, and means operated by the movement of said arm when the plate is absent for placing a stop in the path of said cam.

10. In an addressing machine, the combination, of a supply magazine for address plates, lever mechanism mounted to engage the edges of one or more of the plates adjacent the discharge end of the magazine and be restrained thereby, a clutch, a longitudinally shiftable rod adapted to uncouple the clutch, and means connected with said lever mechanism for causing the rod to shift when the lever mechanism moves consequent upon the absence of the plates in the magazine.

11. In an addressing machine, the combination, of a supply magazine, a conveyer, a pair of impression members to which the conveyer may carry plates from the magazine, one of said impression members being adapted to act as a paper feeding roller, mechanism operated by the absence of paper on the roller, a clutch adapted to control the movement of both the paper roller and the conveyer, amovable member adapted to release said clutch and having a cam, and means movable into the path of the cam by either of the mechanisms mentioned.

12. The combination of a rotary shaft, a paper carrying drum thereon, a. rotary controller mechanism for controlling rotation of the drum, power transmitting mechanism connecting said shaft and said controller mechanism, a power driven mechanism, a clutch adapted to connect the power driven mechanism to said shaft, and a lever member coacting with the drum to enter a recess therein in the absence of paper on the drum, said lever reacting on the controller mechanism to cause the latter to disconnect the shaft from the power driven mechanism.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto afgh; m

signature.

CLIFTON OHISHOLM. 

